Have you ever had the urge? What I mean by that question is, have you ever had such desire mixed with curiosity, you could hardly wait to do something about it? I remember Christmas Eve as a boy, I would lay in my bed at night and try to go asleep even though knew there were gifts waiting for me under the Christmas tree. Too excited to go to sleep, one might say I had something like visions of sugar plums dancing in my head.

Now let's compare our emotion to our faith in God. Perhaps like me, you've prayed for someone or something and asked God to do something. But have you ever wondered what happened when you prayed? Did something change? Did the person for whom you prayed see relief as a result of your intercession? Are there new concerns in their situation that need addressing? What are they and what should you pray?

If we take the same curiosity we all had as kids at Christmas, and then apply a similar emotion to our prayer life, we will express curiosity to learn what God is doing. We should be eagerly seeking information about those things for which we've prayed and revising our prayers on the basis of what we learned.

Paul prayed for the Christians in the towns where he'd been and wrote to encourage them. He couldn't wait to see their progress and find out how God was working in their lives. He knew, and we should know, that prayer without anticipation is like exercise, something you do because you know you should, but it holds little of our attention after the fact.

1. Pray Through the Word - 365 devotionals on the subject of prayer by James R. Green (Isa 63; 1Th 3)
2. Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society

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